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Radioastronomy is one of the fastest growing discipline of abstract science which has added to our knowledge of the Universe by the results and facts of paramount importance. There are strong reasons to believe that the further progress of radio astronomy will reveal new discoveries, of importance both for the astrophysics and for the physical science as a whole.

It has happened so that starting from the middle of the 20-th century, the USSR had been deeply involved into investigation of cosmophysics and development of variety of space technologies whose peak fell on the eighties, when the country faced the necessity of creation a unified organization to promote coordination of all research efforts and combine all the S.U. brains in the field of radio astronomy.

The Institute of Radio Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (IRA NASU) was established in 1985 on the basis of the Department of radio astronomy of the Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics of the UkrSSR Acad. Sci. by the Decree of the UkrSSR Council of Ministers and the UkrSSR Acad. Sci. Decision. From the very point of its creation, the Institute has been headed by Professor Leonid M. Lytvynenko, Member of NASU. At different periods, such well-known men of science as S. Y. Braude, Member of NASU, (1911-2003), A. V. Megn, Corresponding Member of NASU, (1927-2011), as well as Professors P. V. Bliokh, (1922-2000), S. A. Peskovatsky (1926-2000) and A. O. Minakov (1949-2012) have belonged to the Institute.

Casting a glance back at its history, we may assert that the Institute has certainly succeeded in its field of research. It has a well-qualified team of researchers, among whom there are 3 Members of NASU (Lytvynenko, L. M., Konovalenko, O. O., and Shulga, V. M.), 3 Corresponding Members of NASU (Vavriv, D. M., Shkuratov, Y. H., and Yampolski, Y. M.), some 30 Full Doctors and 70 Ph.Ds. In performing their research activities they are assisted by highly skilled engineers and technicians. The departments and laboratories are equipped with the current technology instruments and processing equipment. But the main thing lies in the existence of a well-developed base for radio astronomical observations, available practically for the whole radio-frequency band.

Both formally and essentially, the Institute is the leading research establishment in Ukraine in the field of radio-astronomy and radio-physics researches of the outer space. At present, the Institute is assigned with the following research activity tasks:

- radio astronomy investigation of objects in the Universe,

remote sensing of geospace environment and solar system,

- physical principles of construction of radio telescopes and radio-engineering systems of remote sensing.

Alongside with the basic research, the Institute performs the applied research and development of instruments and radio engineering of various-purpose systems at decameter, microwave, millimeter and sub-millimeter wavelengths.

The scientific results obtained for these years in all mentioned directions have essentially enriched the science and brought a deserved fame to the Institute. Our research fellows have been repeatedly awarded with the national awards and honorary titles, State Prizes of Ukraine in Science and Technology, as well as Prizes of NAS-Ukraine after prominent scientists. In 2009, one of the lunar crater was named after Professor S. Y. Braude, Member of NASU.

IRA NASU is the initiator and participant of many international programs and projects, fruitfully cooperates with the observatories, research institutes and laboratories of the USA, Great Britain, France, Sweden, India, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Austria, Norway, China and Germany, maintains close scientific contacts with leading scientific institutions of Russia and Uzbekistan.

The mankind has already become aware of the fact that the Earth’s civilization is a phenomenon in space. Its development is unpredictable without the proper account for the processes occurred in the Universe, as well as without understanding the history and correlation of different events which occur in some time, space and energy scales. The astrophysics introduces a significant contribution into the intellectual potential of mankind, whereas its applied aspects tend to a broader use. Just for this reason, participation in obtaining new knowledge in astrophysics and radiophysics brings large creative satisfaction to the IRA NASU researchers, while the cooperation is the key moment in development of the domestic science.

Thanks to this, Ukraine ranks high among leading radioastronomical world powers.